


Character Study: Grantaire

by TheBraveHobbit



Series: Taut [4]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:32:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBraveHobbit/pseuds/TheBraveHobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern!AU Grantaire: Poet, Philosopher, Photographer</p>
            </blockquote>





	Character Study: Grantaire

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my sandbox-style Modern!AU: Taut  
> Additional content can be found on my tumblr: elfjolras.tumblr.com

**Modern!AU Grantaire: Poet, Philosopher, Photographer**

> _"So you’re a student?"_  
>  _"I was."_  
>  _"What’d ya study?"_  
>  _"Accounting."  
> _ _"You’re fucking joking. You’re an artist, man."  
> _ _"That’s why I quit."_

Grantaire spent his life trying to fill shoes that didn’t fit. His father was a genius, a brilliant mathmetician whose theorems revolutionized the way engineers understood their craft. Grantaire had heard  _that_  speech so many times he could recite it in his sleep. The problem was, Grantaire just wasn’t smart, and he never had been.

But that’s not right. It wasn’t that he wasn’t smart, he just wasn’t the right _kind_  of smart, and it took him too long to figure that out. Maybe if someone had caught him young, had told him that it was alright to be a little poor with figures and tables when you had a gift for color composition and lighting, when you could make angles sing and words dance…maybe things would have turned out differently for him. He loves his photography, and his music, and his literature…but that’s not a talent, he thinks. It’s not worthwhile. That’s a hobby. It doesn’t  _mean_  anything. 

Estranged from his family, Grantaire manages to make a pretty good living off his art. He and Bahorel run the best-kept-secret of a tattoo parlor in Paris. Nobody can do watercolor work the way Grantaire can, and Bahorel’s blackwork is praised throughout the city. 

When he’s not at work, he can be found wandering Paris with his old-fashioned cameras, in search of moments. He couldn’t tell you exactly what it is he’s looking for; even he doesn’t always know. It’s not until after he develops the film—in the makeshift blackroom of his apartment’s bathroom—that the brilliance comes to life. Jehan’s been on him forever to put out a portfolio, but what’s the point? They’re just pictures.  _They don’t mean anything. Nothing does._


End file.
